Children’s Book on Dr. Fauci Set to be Released This June
A new children’s book by author Kate Messner titled,”Dr. Fauci: How a Boy from Brooklyn Became America’s Doctor”, is set to be released by Simon & Schuster on June 29th.
Dr. Fauci serves as the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda and as the chief medical advisor to the president.
From the publisher:
“Before he was Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci was a curious boy in Brooklyn, delivering prescriptions from his father’s pharmacy on his blue Schwinn bicycle. His father and immigrant grandfather taught Anthony to ask questions, consider all the data, and never give up–and Anthony’s ability to stay curious and to communicate with people would serve him his entire life.
This engaging narrative, which draws from interviews the author did with Dr. Fauci himself, follows Anthony from his Brooklyn beginnings through medical school and his challenging role working with seven US presidents to tackle some of the biggest public health challenges of the past fifty years, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Extensive backmatter rounds out Dr. Fauci’s story with a timeline, recommended reading, a full spread of facts about vaccines and how they work, and Dr. Fauci’s own tips for future scientists. ”
The book is available for preorder here.
Exciting morning here – @CNN's @brianstelter just revealed the cover for DR: FAUCI: HOW A BOY FROM BROOKLYN BECAME AMERICA'S DOCTOR on @ReliableSources!
(Coming 6/29 from @simonschuster & available for pre-order today – https://t.co/f8OxdyPeTf) pic.twitter.com/0rasv2s7Np
— katemessner (@KateMessner) March 21, 2021
Montgomery & Wheaton Mall Owner Looking to Sell Properties
The Los Angeles Business Journal is reporting that Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) plans to sell all of it’s US holdings in 2022. This would include both Westfield Montgomery and Westfield Wheaton.
Shopping malls, which were already hurting due to the rise of online shopping, were hit especially hard during the COVID-19 pandemic.
CEO of URW Jean-Marie Tritant said “We are implementing a program to significantly reduce our U.S. footprint once the investment markets reopen, which should happen as soon as the economy rebounds.”
You can read the full article at
https://labusinessjournal.com/news/2021/mar/08/mall-operator-urw-plans-sell-all-us-properties/
Oddsshark.com and Bovada have released their odds on which city will win the bid for Amazon HQ2. The winning city/area will get about 50,000 high paying jobs. The article states that “Amazon estimates its investments in Seattle added an additional $38 billion to the city’s economy.”
According to the Vegas odds, Northern Virginia comes in first at +240. Washington D.C. comes in second at +350, and Austin is third at +400.
MoCo comes in seventh out of the twenty areas, at +1200.
238 areas initially applied to bring HQ2 to around, so making it to the final 20 is a big deal. There have been talks about Amazon possibly choosing NoVa, D.C., and MoCo as one area for HQ2, but it’s more likely that one area gets chosen.
Amazon is expected to select the location for HQ2 in the coming months.
The full article and odds for all twenty areas can be found here: https://www.oddsshark.com/other/amazon-hq2-betting-prop-odds
David Leavy, the chief corporate operations and communications officer for Discovery Communications, told Bezos that he should not consider Discovery’s decision to move as a knock against Maryland. “I’m happy to champion Montgomery County whether it’s to Amazon or anybody else.” Leavy said.
The article also states that the former White Flint location is believed to be among the prospective sites. Leavy does not think that MoCo included the old Discovery space in their bid.
Full WBJ article here: www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2018/01/26/discovery-communications-exec-wrote-bezos-on-hq2.html?ana=twt
According to this Bethesda Beat article, the proposed location in MoCo is the White Flint area.
www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2018/Montgomery-County-on-Shortlist-for-Second-Amazon-Headquarters/
ontgomery County was announced as one of the 20 finalists for the second Amazon headquarters.
This morning Amazon announced that it narrowed the list of potential locations for its second headquarters to 20 areas. Before today there were 238 proposals, so making it to the final 20 is a big step for MoCo.
Here are the other finalists:
Atlanta, GA
Austin, TX
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Columbus, OH
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Indianapolis, IN
Los Angeles, CA
Miami, FL
Nashville, TN
Newark, NJ
New York City, NY
Northern Virginia, VA
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Raleigh, NC
Toronto, ON
Washington D.C.
Here are some of his tweets from today:
“Muhammad Ali helped me realize that being outspoken can be a good thing.” – Robin Ficker
He’s definitely outspoken. Robin Ficker’s name is synonymous with local elections. He hasn’t won since 1978, when he was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican (he has run as a Democrat, Republican, and as an independent candidate), but he is confident that he will get this one.
I spent about an hour at Mr. Ficker’s Boyds home on Sunday morning. We discussed everything from his friendship with Muhammad Ali to Charles Barkley flying him out to the NBA Finals so he can heckle Michael Jordan to why he thinks he will be the next Montgomery County Executive. Check out this Deadspin article for more on Ali and Jordan: https://deadspin.com/what-the-most-infamous-nba-heckler-learned-from-his-fri-1652413080
Here are some of the main points Mr. Ficker made during our discussion:
On Business
– He thinks MoCo has a realistic shot at landing Amazon. He says he put ads out about it well before the county council started putting their bid together.
– He says helping get term limits passed shows that the county wants change. He believes he is that change.
On Traffic
– He put up “Widen I-270” signs back in 2015 well before it was on Hogan’s radar. He’s not against transit, but he feels as though “drivers in MoCo are being Takoma Parked.” He agrees with Hogan’s plan and supports doing something to “fix the problem some candidates have been unable to fix for 12-16 years.”
On Education
– He wants to get “MoCo moving” by having every student run, jog, or walk a mile at school daily. “A healthy way to start the day.”
– He thinks schools are getting too top heavy (administration). More good teachers are needed, he’d like to let the teachers teach.
On $15 Minimum Wage
– He thinks it was a wimpy move because it wasn’t put into effect immediately. He views it as a feel-good PR move by council members for the democratic primary. “We don’t know what’s gonna happen. By the time it goes into effect, none of them will be around for the consequences.”
– At the rate they’re raising taxes (property, energy, etc.), tripling parking rates in Bethesda, and hinting at soft drink taxes…$15 an hour won’t be nearly enough.
On Why He’ll Win/What He’ll Do When He Does
– He’s in touch with voters. He plans on visiting every neighborhood in MoCo by November of 2018.
– He’s a debater. He wins jury cases all the time. He’s right on the issues.
– If he wins he will move the office to the ground floor. Every Monday morning he will give MoCo residents the opportunity to come talk to him about the issues for an hour or two (5 minutes a piece).
– He noticed that all of the candidates were sitting during the Democratic candidate debate. He says if he was debating, he would not be sitting because he is standing up for Montgomery County.
On Who He’d Vote For (if he had to choose one of the current candidates other than himself)
– Rose Krasnow. If elected, he would fill at least half of his positions with women. He thinks Rose is “very smart.” He also likes that she’s from Rockville, which is different than “The Beltway Boys.”
